


Road to Recovery

by SpaceValentine (Alynox)



Category: OMORI (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Character Death, Character Study, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Five Stages of Grief, Friendship, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Hallucinations, Hurt, Internal Monologue, Mental Health Issues, Mental Instability, OMORI Spoilers, Post-Canon, Pre-Canon, Recovery, Spoilers, Suicidal Thoughts, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, heavy spoilers, post true ending
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-25
Updated: 2021-02-25
Packaged: 2021-03-16 17:16:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,235
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29703927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alynox/pseuds/SpaceValentine
Summary: After Mari died, Sunny retreated into his home. Slowly, the house became more empty until it was just him and whatever his mind could conjure up. Then, he confessed to his friends what happened and is working on recovering and continuing with his life.Snippets starting from after the incident to post-canon.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 41





	Road to Recovery

After the incident, the house was a lot quieter. There was no piano or excited chatter. There wasn’t a group of kids playing by the TV or even family dinners. When Sunny cared to think past the haze his mind had blurred into, the house was as quiet as he could ever remember it being. Usually, though, everything costs too much energy to even consider thinking about. The minutes passed as slow as sludge and the weeks passed in days. Time often felt too out of reach to comprehend so he didn’t bother. Memories were too painful to linger on and his only respite was his daydreams. He liked to imagine far-off worlds and great adventures, but even his own daydreams liked to wake him up sometimes.

When the hanger pangs were enough to make his eyes sting and he’d finally succeed in sitting up after a few tries, he’d walk out of his room for food. Even though the house was quieter, it held noise. His mother and father’s whispered arguments that they probably thought was too quiet to attract his attention (or maybe they thought that even if they shouted he wouldn’t hear), Mewo’s shuffling around the house and intermittent cries for food, and the whispers that didn’t come from his parents. Sunny could never tell where those ones were from. He was scared to try and find them. There was a light coming from under his parent’s door, and he used it to tell where his feet were. At the top of the stairs, he stopped like he usually did. He held the railing, anxiety surfacing about how long the staircase was. Both hands used the railing as a guide, shaking coming from fear or hunger. Each step was taken carefully, judging the weight and safety of each step. No matter how many times he’d used them, he’d always feel a brushing wind against his back, as if about to push him.

He felt minute twitches in his fingers and legs, sudden jerking moments like he was just barely keeping himself from sprinting down the stairs. His breathing came faster, and his grip squeezed harder. His shoulders heaved and the shadows felt darker. They surrounded him, and his left knee buckled a little under his weight, but he stayed upright and held on tighter, staring at the bottom of the stairs getting closer. It felt like they should be coming faster.

As the balls of his foot met the wooden flooring, he wrapped his arms around himself and looked back up the stairs, searching with his eyes for anything that had been behind him. He kept his back away from the stairs as he found his way to the kitchen. He used his arms to get an idea of his location and finally entered the doorway, turning on the light switch and flipping around. His shoulders dropped with visible relief at the bright room.

A different kind of dread filled him by being in the kitchen, though. On the way down he’d forgotten his original goal till now and thinking of the possible food options left him overwhelmed. There were so many different things, and he had to actually decide what to eat? How could he do that? That required thinking and preparing and he really just wanted to be back in bed. He opened the freezer and after a cursory glance, grabbed a packet of frozen macaroni. 

He unpacked it, cooked it in the microwave, got a bowl and fork, and mindlessly ate away at it. Even just this ate away at his energy. If he got hungry again he wasn’t sure how he’d be able to make it all the way back down and make more food. It never ended. He ate and it seemed in no time he was hungry again. It felt so pointless but when he put it off for too long it was hard to focus on his dreams. He usually managed to muster up the energy at some point though. Even if it took a few tries he’d still make it downstairs and got enough to keep going. Sometimes he didn’t even have to go downstairs when his parents grew worried enough to make him something. They’d never been allowed to eat in their rooms before, but Sunny guesses there wasn’t much point in family dinners anymore. 

The macaroni was a good choice, bland enough that he didn’t have to think about it too much, easy preparation, and hopefully enough to tide him over for a while. Before every bite he found himself twirling his fork around in it, trying to find an angle that would make it look appetizing. It never worked. Just looked like mush that’s only purpose was to make sure Sunny didn’t keel over. Another stab at the macaroni as he felt the faint sensation of annoyance at the food for making him come all the way down here just for that.

“Sunny?” A soft voice called, and before he turned around he couldn’t tell if it was real or not. But there was his mother, in the doorway and watching him. He stared at her.

She stared back, eyes flickering around his face before drifting down to look at the food, ”Oh, you’re eating?” She tried to smile, but it seemed uneven and fake, ”That’s good, sweetie.” Her voice was soft like she was waiting for him to break.

Her voice had never been this soft before. She was still kind, but she had confidence and a motherly sternness that usually overrode any softness her voice may have had. Now, it seemed she second-guessed everything she said. Her eyes wavered, and Sunny wondered if she still waited for him to respond to her after all this time. Sunny said nothing.

A breath of air escaped her lips and her eyes seemed to water and narrow for a second before she walked over.

A hand settled in the back of his hair, and his nerves alighted as his shoulders drew up, ”Go ahead and keep eating, sweetie.” She whispered, brushing his hair with her hand. As he slowly continued eating, shaky breaths escaped as if holding back tears, and within his trapped mind, he wondered what she had talked about with dad. He’d been gruffer and more closed off than he used to. Mom always said he was working through it at his own pace, Sunny found himself avoiding him anyways.

The hand stopped and held the strands of his hair gently between fingers, ”Sunny, you know I love you, right?”

He paused, then nodded, turning around to look at his mother. He hated seeing the tears in her eyes. Her hand now rested on his cheek, her thumb by his eye. A shaky soft sob left her mouth, “I love you so much. We’re all going to get through this, okay?” She looked him in the eye as he nodded to her, feeling like a liar.

She took a deep breath in and leaned over to give Sunny a hug. He let her, not reacting. He didn’t squirm or push away, but he didn’t hug her back even if he knew that was what she wanted. She pressed her face into his hair, holding him close, ”Yeah, we’re going to be okay.”

He looked past her with dull eyes through the open doorway. He could see the stairs from here.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay this will be my first series. This starts off recently after Mari's death but will have multiple time skips until we get to post canon. I want to look more into his trauma during the years he spent pretty much alone. It's not written out completely so edits may occur. I will add to the tags as this continues so keep an eye on them. Also, let me know if I should add anything because I'm still new to the tagging system.


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